The chorus of approval from state and local leaders, business and manufacturing organizations, organized labor and ordinary citizens is a reminder that the Michigan public has long since been sold on the value of the bridge, both as an immediate economic stimulus that will provide thousands of new jobs and as a long-term investment in this nationís most important trading relationship.

Even last fall, when it seemed that every day brought a new wave of specious objections to the NITC initiative, it turned out that virtually every mailer and TV minute trashing the project had been underwritten, directly or indirectly, by Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun and his family. Their isolation was made manifest when Michigan voters decisively defeated a so-called public initiative designed to slow or derail the new span despite the unprecedented avalanche of anti-bridge advertising.

Morounís intransigence continues to augur all-but-certain delays in the construction process authorized by Fridayís presidential permit. The Ambassador Bridge owner still owns some of the land the U.S. government needs to complete the project. Canada has agreed to pay for land acquisition on the Michigan side, but the Moroun family will likely oppose efforts to seize the land via eminent domain.

But if the speed at which the next steps will unfold remains in question, the resolve of citizens and governments on both sides of the border is no longer in question. The future of U.S.-Canada trade looms ever more palpably on the horizon; the question is no longer whether it will include a second bridge, but when and how our that vision, now decades in the making, will be realized.